The Hollow Life &Death of J.Alfred Prufrock

"Through the lives and afterlives of Prufrock and ‘The Hollowmen,’ Eliot crafts an interesting tale of morality. Instead of focusing on the ills of violence and destruction, he preaches the dangers of inactivity, or living a life without substance. Neutrality is a darker, quiet sin; permitting evil without contributing to the common good. To exhume Eliot’s moral, the apparent themes within both poems are mapped, revealing that the weight of the narrative falls within the poles of ‘vice’ and ‘inaction,’ while the only bright lights of salvation are found within the crosshairs of virtuous action. The typography also reflects the major theme as it grows and contracts to depict Prufrock's struggle for salvation, before finally collapsing towards his damnation as a ‘Hollow man.’ Dark and stagnant, Eliot’s prose warns that the end of the world is the result of inaction, rather than violence; that we will fall ‘not with a bang, but a whimper.’"